The automaker has a combined manufacturing capacity of 15.5 lakh units at its Gurgaon and Manesar plants. Apart from this, the Suzuki-owned Hansalpur (Gujarat) plant also has an installed capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum from the first line.
Speaking at TOI dialogues, Bhargava said, “I don’t see us reaching 250,000 a line production in these operating conditions. Employee safety is a non-negotiable factor. With the kind of procedures and social distancing measures which are now in place, 250,000 per line is not likely to be achieved until many more developments take place and the virus comes under control.”
Additionally, the reduced shift timings is another factor that has hamstrung productivity. MSI chairman underlined, “Production is very much a function of the time worth. The working level of a shift is supposed to be eight hours, we can’t work eight hours. The effective working hour is somewhere near six and a half hours now so that is also going to have an impact.”
Maruti Suzuki restarted operations at its Gurugram plant in Haryana on Monday after about 55 days of closure because of the coronavirus-led lockdown, whereas Manesar plant resumed operations in a single shift from May 12, 2020.Commenting on the plant operations, Bhargava said, “ I couldn’t see any large volumes being produced till the end of September. There are limitations to increasing volume production. Gurgaon has just started operations, Manesar is running at low capacity, we didn’t really have vendor supply chain because of containment zones so with all these factors coming in, maintaining and sustaining production at any reasonable volume is an extremely difficult task.”
Meanwhile, the company has opened around 1100 showrooms out of its 3100 sales outlets and 5000 cars had been retailed when the lockdown 3.0 was in place, the Maruti Suzuki’s Chairman added.
